HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
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consistence and qualities of healthy fibrin, nor yet of that fibrin found in ordinary 
pleurisy ; for, instead of being strongly fibrillated, tenacious, and almost devoid 
of smell, it is soft, contains unusual numbers of corpuscles or cells resembling 
pus, much of it is semi-fluid, and evolves a sickly odour. The pericardium nearly 
always contains fluid, like that found in the chest. The liver is soft and con- 
gested, in consequence of its large venous outlets being obstructed. The intes- 
tines often contain patches of a purple tint, and Mr. Taylor, of Nottingham, spe- 
cially notices the fact, that they are frequently ulcerated, thus presenting a 
striking resemblance to what is seen in typhus fever in man. The great feature, 
in short, of all is, that most organs are softened, many of them broken down in 
structure, and offensive in smell, and more or less^ filled with dark coagulable 
blood. 
History. — Some of our friends whose recollections extend into the last cen- 
tury, will now and then tell us, that influenza — unknown in their younger days 
— is a disease of these later times. It is certain that the same name has not 
always been applied to the same symptoms ; yet, I believe, that the disease in 
horses now called influenza, has an antiquity equally venerable as the influenza 
in man. There does not seem to'exist any authentic records of epidemic influ- 
enza, prior to the year 1510. ( Annals of Influenza, Sydenham Society’s edit.) In 
that year it prevailed extensively. Domestic animals suffered from disease also ; 
but, of what nature, we have no exact information. The epidemic influenza that 
visited England and Ireland in the year 1668, vras preceded by a disease among 
horses, in which discharge or defluxion from the nose was a prominent symptom. 
{Ibid., pp. 22, 25.) Dr. Arbuthnot, alluding to the epidemic influenza of 1732-3, 
says : “ In autumn, and long afterwards, a madness (appeared) among the dogs ; 
the horses were seized with catarrh before mankind.” {Ibid., p. 38.) Gibson, a 
veterinarian of good repute, describes a disease occurring amongst horses in 1732, 
which was evidently influenza ; and Gervase Markham, whose book on veterinary 
topics in general had reached its twenty-first edition in 1734, describes symp- 
toms closely corresponding with those before enumerated. In 1738, coincident 
with influenza in man, coughs and anginas were very common among horses, 
and in many cases caused death by suffocation. {Ibid., p. 57.) In 1743, “ there 
was much mortality amongst deer, and mange appeared much amongst horses, 
many of which died emaciated, and were suffocated with glanders and cough.” 
{Ibid., p. 60.) Epidemic influenza existed at the same time. Osmer, a veterinary 
writer, describes a horse distemper occurring in 1750, which was, evidently, influ- 
enza. Before epidemic influenza appeared in the Carse of Gowrie, in 1758, the 
horses were observed to be universally affected with coughs and colds. Speaking 
of epidemic influenza, in 1775, Dr. Fothergill says: “The horses had severe 
coughs, were hot, forbore eating, and were long in recovering.” {Ibid., p. 89.) 
During epidemic influenza, in 1775, Dr. Haggarth, of Chester, states : “That 
almost all the horses in North Wales were seized with coughs.” {Ibid., p. 111.) 
Noticing the same epidemic, Dr. Glass, of Exeter, says : “ Many horses were 
affected with colds and coughs, which constitution, it should seem, was not merely 
accidental ; since it has been observed, that horses were infected before man in 
three general epidemical constitutions that have appeared in our time.” {Ibid., 
p. 102.) Referring to the same visitation, Dr. Pulteney, of Blandford, Dorset, 
says : “ I have heard much of horses and dogs having been affected before we 
heard of it among the human race.” {Ibid., p. 112.) A severe catarrhal affec- 
tion among horses was observed and described by Mr. White, Y.S., of Exeter, 
and Mr. Wilkinson, Y.S., Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1798. The symptoms exactly 
corresponded with those now constituting what is called influenza. In 1803, 
epidemic influenza appeared in France, Holland, Great Britain, and Ireland ; and 
we have abundant evidence of a similar disease occurring among horses before 
and at the same time. {Ann. Inf, p. 213.) It re-appeared again among horses 
very extensively and severely in 1815. {Wilkinson on Catarrhal Affection in 
Horses; Newcastle, 1818.) John Field, of London, records the remarkable pre- 
valence of the disease in 18 19 and 1823. Since that time, and up to the present, we 
find many records of its occurrence in our monthly periodical, The VeterinjUuan. 
It is singular that, although of late years, scarcely twelve consecutive months 
